Not every youth coach likes to force players to run sprints during practice for conditioning. An alternative to this is to incorporate conditioning into drills that seem more purposeful to players. Not only do they serve the same physical purpose as traditional conditioning drills, but they also increase player engagement while making better use of practice time while simultaneously honing in on other skills.
Here is an example of one of mine:
Shooting Conditioning
This works best with a small group of players, but it can be modified for larger groups.
On one side of the court, 3 rows of 3 cones are set up inside the three-point arc.
The rows are located in the middle, left and right inside the three-point line. In each of the three rows, one cone is at a short mid-range jumper, and the other two are located a bit in front of and a bit behind the free-throw line.
For each round, players must make one shot from each of the cones. They will complete one row at a time from the closest shot to the farthest one. If a player misses a shot, they have to sprint to the baseline while dribbling (the baseline on the side that they are shooting on). After they make a shot from all 9 cones, they will run 2 down-and-backs. That is one round.
Each player needs to complete a total of three rounds
After the three rounds, players must make 5 free throws to close out the drill.
Feel free to share any skill-based or team drills that incorporate conditioning here!
Working conditioning into basketball activities are great ways to help conditioning. I agree it helps increase engagement with the players, also they get to focus on improving skills while getting conditioning and that helps your practice become more efficient instead of prolonged. Helps them when they get tired to still be able to make basketball plays through fatigue.
A drill that I like is...
~ 1 line in all four corners and the players that are in front of lines on end (A) have basketballs
~ the players in the front of lines on end (B) on the other sprint down to receive basketball on other in then get into a basketball move and shot then take ball to their line on that end.
~The second set of people in end (B) will have a basketball to get prepared to pass to end (A) players who will be first to pas to the players.
~The players from end (A) will then run down to the other end after they pass to receive the ball and shoot on the opposite end of court.
This drill continues on for a set amount of time or made number of shots the team wants.